Quick and Easy!

There are many days that Suzy and I don't see each other for more than 10 minutes. If I know I am not going to have dinner with Suzy, I still want to make sure something is available to eat. Some of the time there are leftovers. When there are no leftovers, I have a few recipes that I can whip up for her, leave in the fridge for her to enjoy later. My favorite is a shrimp pasta salad.

This is sooo super simple that I usually prepare this while I'm playing my XBOX 360.
Any pasta will do although rotini, macaroni, or bow-tie pasta are the easiest to blend. You can use a variety of meats or no meat at all. We always have shrimp in house so I generally go that route. The ingredients I use are as follows...

3/4 lb rotini pasta
3 tbsp EVOO
1/2 green pepper
1/3 cup of red onion
1/2 lb of shrimp peeled and deveined
tsp paprika
1 cup of Italian dressing
diced tomato
grated Parmesan cheese
parsley


First boil water with a tbsp of EVOO for the pasta. Generally I coat shrimp in EVOO and cajun seasoning and put it in the fridge for 10 minutes or so. Chop all vegetables. You can add celery and/or cucumber if you have them on hand. Add pasta to boiling water and cook to al dente. While the pasta is cooking, put the other tbsp in a skillet and prepare the shrimp. Drain the pasta and "shock" it with cold water to stop the cooking process. In a large bowl, combine veggies, pasta, shrimp, paprika, and Italian dressing and toss until well blended. At this point it is ready to serve. Sprinkle the parmesan, parsley, and diced tomato on top. But I just throw it in the refrigerator with a little love note for Suzy to enjoy when she is ready.